What are your takeaways from kind of all the drama that we just saw unfold over the last three plus months?

Well, first of all, I want to say, just for anybody watching, I am parked, so I'm not doing this while I'm driving.

I'm being safe.

I'm parked.

I'm in a parking lot.

Yes, I'm in a parking lot, so we're all safe.

And this is, to me, the magic of the podcast world, too, because I've done this myself with other guests before when I've done shows and stuff.

Because, man, the wild mood swings of this team have been just wild over the last few years, Smitty.

What's the biggest difference going basketball to baseball on the radio call?

Uh, uh, okay, here's, here's the most honest answer I can give you, Blake.

It's, this is my third season calling Jays games now, and if we go back to season number one a few years ago, I, when I, when I say I was worried, I wasn't, you know, I wasn't sitting at home chewing on my nails, but I was a little bit concerned about like, okay, this is the first time I'm doing this.

I grew up on baseball and basketball.

I grew up a huge baseball fan overall and played the game, et cetera, so I, I feel like I know the game.

But it's much different when you have covered one sport, basketball, for 20-plus years, and you're suddenly thrust into another one.

And my concern was, am I gonna be able to have enough stories to tell or enough questions to ask? Am I gonna be well-read enough? Am I gonna be up on things beyond just being kind of a fan of the game overall? And I'll tell you, as much prep as I do, as I know you do, as, as anybody in our business does, as probably a lot of fans do, prepping for games even as fans and staying up on the latest stories, and stats, and, and trends, and everything else, the change in baseball that I've seen even as a, as a fan, let alone as a broadcaster, with the pitch clock, these games move not quite as fast as basketball, but there is not nearly as much time to kind of tell those old-timey baseball stories.

It is part of the job for Kevin Gausman, and who better to have in this spot? Um, but given that the Jays have been running with basically three starting pitchers the last little bit, um, how much are your eyes on Gausman's gotta give them, you know, not just a good start, but probably give them some length in this one as well, and the pressure that comes with that when the, there are all these other injuries elsewhere?

How much of a focus will he be headed into tonight's game?

Massive.

I mean, I don't know if it's entirely on Brandon Ingram because I would, you know, without jumping too far ahead in the conversation, I think there's probably a chat to be had about Jakob Pertl and the fact that, you know, when we look at the injury And the status of Emmanuel quickly combined with the ineffectiveness and, and complete lack of use of Yakup hurdle in the second half of game two, and then discuss the issues as we are right now about Brandon Ingram talking about 60% of the starting lineup that essentially did next to nothing in game two.

One guy was out.

One guy was taken off the floor and the other guy was ineffective.

You're not going to beat anybody.

60% of your starting lineup is essentially taken out of the ball game, either literally or figuratively.

What do you make of the shifts the Raptors have made of how to defend them? And do you think there's anything they've got kind of left in their back pocket for for game three and four and hopefully more than that?

But it's, the, the best Scottie Barnes games don't have to be even, you know, above 20 points really, honestly, 'cause he's capable of doing so many other things.

Yeah.

Bar- I mean, Barnes, Barnes didn't have a field goal until the second half last night.

I mean, he, he, he went, he, he, he scored a, you know, I think it was- Four or five points or something maybe in the first half.

It was all at the free throw line.

It took until the second half for him to finally get that first field goal of the game.

Uh, but that said, that's coming off an effort on Tuesday where it was really the Scottie and Brandon Ingram show.

But, like, where are they in your mind as far as the bar that you set for this team and, and superseding that and, and matching it?

What do you make of that?

I mean, you just kind of said it when we were talking about Knicks and Raptors.

The numbers kind of back up.

The numbers give you the proof.

So it's hard to say that in one sentence and then not say it in another.

So I think to your point, Zach.

The Raptors, the numbers say what they are.

I mean, where do you fall on whether or not the talent pool is deep enough to sustain two more full rosters? Does tanking have to be fixed before this happened? I mean, what do you think of two additional teams to push the NBA to 32?

question.

Like, I understand we're waiting to see if Tatum returns, and that's a huge thing, if he does ultimately come back for that squad.

But I look at a lot of these teams around Toronto and say, in a seven-game series, could Toronto...

Given the opportunity to match up and to coach and come up with game plans, et cetera, in a seven-game series against any team, even if they're the underdogs, could you still say they're like, yeah, I could kind of see them maybe winning this series? There's a couple of teams.

Maybe we're throwing Detroit in there.

Maybe we're throwing Boston there.

I really like the Knicks.

even in Detroit,

Speaker 3 6th,

here's why I think as a bonus would help.

And again, it depends on what, what costs there's no denying that he's an absolute rebounding monster.

I don't know that he necessarily improves you defensively.

That's not to say that you become worse, but I don't suddenly think that he comes in and helps you, you know, take it to the next level on the defensive end.

But I think his impact on the offense, his impact on the rebounding, his impact, you know, just with his size and his ability to play in the pick and roll and et cetera, I think would be fantastic.

I'm going to go back to what I said a couple of minutes ago, though, at what cost.

In a league where players have so much power and say and where they go, especially the guys of note, it feels like having a coach that's coaching at an All-Star weekend should kind of help you a little bit in that regard whenever it comes to recruitment, be it recruitment recruiting a guy to be traded here or recruiting somebody in the summer?

What do you think he's meant to the team and just the ability to kind of spare quickly and kind of run the second unit a little bit? It feels like these kind of found money guys are so important to the success of any franchise, but the Raptors have kind of proven it over the years.

Yeah.

I mean, he's, he's been, he's been absolutely huge.

Think about the fact that how many times have we seen, even just in the last couple of weeks, shed closing games, either with, or even at times without a manual quickly.

I think he just proves that the trust that, that Darko Rakovic and the coaching staff has in Jamal shed to be that steady force on the floor.

I think that defensively, what he brings has been off the charts.

I mean, he, he just, just is an absolute pest defensively, staying attached to the hip of guys and trying to fight through screens.

It has been pretty extreme, though, and obviously the price tag impacts it.

[laughs]

And all of a sudden at the end of the ballgame he's flirting with a triple-double, and he looks all world, and he's, he's, he's unbeatable at times.

And they couldn't seem to stop him.

I, I, I think there's a couple of things that stood out for me in last night's game specifically, but even the last handful of games.

One, and I'm not pinning it on him by any means, it's merely just a fact, Brandon Ingram has struggled the last couple of ballgames.

Going back to Saturday against Charlotte when he was 0 for nine in the fourth quarter and overtime, and he was the guy that kinda got caught defensively when Kon Knipple drained the three and, you know, he's had his hands down, didn't contest the shot, et cetera, et cetera.

And again, I'm not piling on, it's just little things that stand out.

What, uh, what have you made of, of his season so far?

How do you and Paul Jones cover Raptors road games? Do you travel with the team?

We traveled with the team for 16 years.

And then when COVID hit, it's a longer story than perhaps you want, but I'll give you all the gory details.

So we traveled with the team for 16 years, March of 2020, when the world shut down, when the NBA shut down.

Our last road game was in Utah.

And if you remember, it was Rudy Gobert that was sort of patient zero or patient X, whatever we want to call him.

I remember him touching all of the recorders and recording devices and whatnot that were on the table in front of him.

It doesn't necessarily have to be from basketball, but who have you met that you had to pinch yourself, you could not believe you were meeting them, IRL, in real life?

I also don't know, much like you or I or anybody else heading into it, expected the Raptors to be the two-seed team in the East, like for this foundation that they've built, how much credit to that do you give to Coach Darko?

I think it's a great point.

I think a lot of it goes to him because of the fact that, you know, you've had to flick that switch to, all right, it's time to win.

And I think he might not ever admit it publicly, but, you know, I think it would be a natural human instinct or feeling for any one of us to think about the fact that, okay, you know what? I've had a couple of losing seasons, but the organization knew, and I knew going in, that it was probably about development and about building towards something.

And if you don't want to call it a rebuild, then it was certainly a retool the last couple of seasons, the last few seasons.

And you've been at the helm for that.

But now when you've got a core in place and you've kind of had a couple losing seasons and the organization or the bosses above you flick that switch and say, all right, we expect more now.

Outside of that, though, is there anything unsustainable about what the Raptors are doing right now?